 July 30, 2014 - 7:41pm |
Issue 9 is now available for download from both the Frontier Explorer website or DriveThruRPG/RPGNow. This issue is all about spaceships. We have a couple of awesome deck plan by Joseph Meager that we rescued from a lost Star Frontiers site. Plus submissions from some regular contributiors and a cargo ship by a new author, M. Derryberry. In all, there are three sets of deck plans, a writeup on a fourth class of ships, some space stations, and a review of early atomic rockets. We also have a new system brief and the continuing adventures of Jurak Hangna and Grymz, as well as a bit of Yazirian legend related by Alex Stone. We even found room to squeeze in some new equipment, more pages of the Titan Rising: 2299 comic, and some Knight Hawks encounters. We are really excited about the image on the cover. The Assault Scout model used to make the cover was created by a talented Fronteirsman named Jay Thrurman. Look to see more done with this and other models he's created in future issues. This issues contents are:
Grab your copy today and check out all the new material. And as always, keep exploring! Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 July 30, 2014 - 8:21pm | Thumbs up to the new submitters and Jay Thurman for his work creating Star Frontiers models for 3d rendering. AZ gamer continues to do a bang up job and Eric continues to produce great work! Thanks to Tom S for all the work he does maintianing the site and keeping us on schedule. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 1, 2014 - 12:50pm | Love the cover art. Though given the altitude of the vessels, it would have been nice to see some thrusters. That said, lovely image. The Scree Fron write-ups are interesting. The introduction of a previously mentioned, but unexplained megacorp is interesting. The thing that irritates me about most deck plans in the game is that they give no room to the plumbing, wiring and equipment. Just paper-thin walls. I believe that might be why I'm not often thrilled by them in any publication. Take for example the American Space Shuttles. They are almost completely wiring, plumbing and equipment with very little space for the crew and onboard experiments. In fact, the crew sleep in wall-mounted bags for spacial efficiency as much as practicality. I would like to see someone give more consideration to the mechanics of ship design. I think it would make for a more intriguing design and for sparking the imagination. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
August 1, 2014 - 12:54pm | Love the cover art. Though given the altitude of the vessels, it would have been nice to see some thrusters. That said, lovely image. I actually had the same thought when putting it together, I just ran out of time to try to figure out how to pull it off. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 August 1, 2014 - 6:55pm | I like the spaceship maps and write-ups. I seen them before, but its nice to see them in an e-zine. It is good to see them saved form the oblivion folks call the Internet Memory Hole. I hope Ragnarr (the guy who made the scoutships) finish his ship designs, as I would like to see them in a future issue of Frontier Explorer or Star Frontiersmen. |
 August 1, 2014 - 11:26pm | Nice work everyone. I love the cover and the articles look great. As Jedion and I have discussed in the past, I think it is good to preserve stuff from the old web pages in the ezines, as the ezines seem to be able to last longer. |
 August 2, 2014 - 12:09pm | (Sorry for the mispellings) As person who designs starships as a hobby, I add far more detail to my designs than most of those who do it for a living. I'm always on the look out for new rooms and concepts to add to my drawings. One thing, you must remember about starships designs is they add to the game play. A deckplan is an aid, so the GMs can point at something and say, this is the life support unit or this is the bridge. A perfect example of that are my cabins. The beds are not to scale. Yet once, you see it you know it is a bed and at a quick glance you can say, here are the cabins. SO there is a compromise being made. I'd love to build a very large ship with mulitple levels with crawlspaces and ducts so that players can crawl around in. That would be a tremdious undertaking. You'd have to be structural engineer with a cad program and hundreds of hours of work to get it done. Most of us have other jobs and we can't devote that sort time and effort. I love Starfrontierman and Frontier Explorer magazine. If I ever hit the lottery, I'll be able to devote more time and effort to my hobbies of writing and drawing. You guys keep up the good work. |
August 2, 2014 - 2:13pm | It does not take an engineer to give consideration to engineering space. At even a split second glance, a person can tell there's too much space being given to the crew when there is no space for engineering. The walls should usually be thick black voids in a design. Take this deck plan for instance. Note how much space is taken up by the gray area. The designer knows that much of the ship is not accessable due to engineering concerns, but he did not need to be an engineer to consider it. He just grayed it in and marked off hard points. (Though the three man escape pods look like one man escape pods.) It also makes for a much more interesting look. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
August 2, 2014 - 3:05pm | On one level I hear Ascent and have a lot of agreement with him concerning negineering spaces. I have worked on deck plans where I put in air vents and an engineering "chase" because its absolutely logical that ships in a vertical orientation would have a chase where they would run power runs, water lines, intercom lines and data lines. KHs ships and military craft in particulare would not have wireless intercoms just in case jamming was employed. Chronocoms could be used as back ups like when battle damage has been ruled by the referee to have cut power, data, and com lines between decks. I also like to state that there is a sub deck where water and waste piping, air vents, power lines, data lines, and intercoms radiate from the engineering chase to where these things need to reach on the deck . A sub deck is just a crawl space and movement is at 1/2 or 1/4 speed. The easiest place to put an engineering chase is alongside the elevator, which cuts through all the decks anyways. My motivation for engineeing spaces is NOT about realism in the space craft but about another problem with KHs space ships- they are very linear with usually only one line of advance if you are having any sort of AD action on such a ship it pretty much becomes a railroad. With air vents and an engineering chase there are other options for the PCs to attempt tactical movement. To me its far more interesting to have deck plans that will allow PCs or NPC to attempt to sneak around. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 3, 2014 - 6:41am | If ever I do a deck plan, I would definitely include a tight engineer's access (chase) within the shaded portions. You're right, it could definitely open up possibilities. Vents that can fit a human, however, is a cinematic concession. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
August 3, 2014 - 2:58pm | If ever I do a deck plan, I would definitely include a tight engineer's access (chase) within the shaded portions. You're right, it could definitely open up possibilities. Vents that can fit a human, however, is a cinematic concession. I agree that air vents fitting a human being a cinematic concession but that is kind of my intent- options for the players not a redux of Clint Eastwood's Gauntlet. A bigger ship with multiple elevators would relieve that but doing large ships gets cumbersome. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
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